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                     Fight for Freedom                     
                   -by Lightning Cloud-                    
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                   To you: two years ago                   
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To you: two years ago
It was like no other the rest had seen before; she had fallen to her knees. As she helplessly clutched the limp body to her, she stared into the soulless eyes of what she had once known as the only one she would ever love. The rain softly hit the ground and puddles, dampening the sound of her soft sobs and tears. She looked towards the sky with streams running down her face, a clearing came through, and streaks of sunlight lied upon both of them. She closed her eyes and let forth a mournful cry.
          Everything in life had changed a lot her in all of Equestria in the past couple of years. Twilight Sparkle had become a princess; most of the bad had been changed to good, and Discord had been willing to now help Equestria. I was glad to see all the change that was happening around, but it made me realize that time goes fast, and that you need to do spend it on what you love most.
As I got closer to the house I usually waited by, the most beautiful girl I had ever met stepped from it like an angel leaving Gods gate. Her light blonde hair flowed with the wind, and her light blue eyes took me to the sky itself. Her name was Charlotte, and she had moved here a few weeks ago. All the guys had hit on her but she just shot all of them down, but I never asked, hell I would probably never have a chance. As I observed her she scanned the area as if looking for someone or something, she frowned then sighed. She grabbed her school bag and continued her way up the sidewalk to the stop sign at the end of the block. “What are we doing”? I about jumped out of my school uniform, “Alex why the hell did you sneak up on me”!? He laughed hard enough for the next country over to hear, “I got you good Gun-”. I used my hand to cover his mouth and whispered, “shut up, I don’t want her to know I’m here”. He slapped my hand away from his mouth and talked quietly,
“Gunner, just go talk to her. It’s the last day of school, besides the worst she could say is no”.
The thought of her gave me butterflies, talking to her would be the hardest thing to do in my life. “Guys! Wait up”! We turned to see Blake running towards us at is top speed.
As he stopped he checked his wristwatch, “Yes, ten seconds better than last time!” he shouted.
I began to get a little paranoid, “Blake what time is it”?
Blake tapped a button and he checked it again, “yeah we got twenty-five minutes until school begins”. I sighed with relief; a walk from here only took ten. Then without warning Alex and Blake raced towards the direction of school, I was about to yell for them but they wouldn’t stop. I picked up my bag and began to run around the corner. As I rounded the corner, I bumped into someone and papers flew everywhere. My head had hit the ground and I held my hand against my head and closed my eyes in minor pain. “I’m sorry about that” a voice said.
I tried to apologize, “No it’s my fault”. I opened my eyes, “I wasn’t looking where I was… going”. It was Charlotte, her face was as surprised as mine was; we stared at each other for a good five seconds. My face became a rose red and I turned to hide my embarrassment.
“My name is Charlotte”, she began to bring papers together.
I felt bad for what I had done, “here let me help, it’s my fault” I started to do the same. “My name is Gunner”.
She looked up “oh, I knew that”.  As I looked up, she blushed and started picking up papers again. I handed her a stack of her papers and she thanked me. The thought of school popped back into my head and I only had ten minutes to get there. “Hey, do you maybe wanna walk to school together?” Charlotte asked. Not believing what I just heard, I blankly stared at her. She grabbed my hand and shifted towards the way of school. “Uh, sure”, I answered as we began walking.
      The whole time we walked, we basically talked about how we were and school stuff. I was actually surprised that she told me about her old school and family. We started to walk up to the high school, and I noticed the same boring school board outside that read ‘Staliongrad high school’. We walked in side and the halls were still crawling with students, she said her class was on the east wing so I walked with her. Some people began to stare and talk by their lockers, but I didn’t care because I knew this wouldn’t last long. At last we had reached the classroom, and then she turned around to face me. “Well that was fun” she said with a grin.
I sighed, “Well I’m glad you had fun, this is probably the last time you’ll ever talk to me”.
She gave me a puzzled look, “Gunner, what are you talking about? I like you”. She leaned in closer and started to whisper, “besides, I thought of this as like a small first date”. Leaning back, Charlotte gave me a kiss on the cheek, “I’ll see you later” she said as she walked into her classroom.
“She… likes me” I said aloud, I turned with a wide grin on my face and started running towards my class on the north wing, “She likes me”!
   The 1st hour bell rang and we stood around the class and talked for five minutes. The door started to open and our teacher came through, “good morning Mr. Wick”, I called. He set his carry bag down and greeted me back with a smile. Mr. Wick had always been a favorite teacher of mine, along with his brother, who we all called Mr. Bone.
“Alright class, today you turn in your history books. We will also be watching a movie for the rest of the day”. A few quiet “yes’s” were heard followed by snores of still tired students.
As the movie began, my friend Tyler pulled up a chair next to my desk. “So, I’m guessing you sealed the deal with Charlotte”, he whispered.
I shrugged, “you can kind of say that”. We stuck each other’s fist out and pounded them together.
       Mr. Bone all of a sudden busted through the door, “Wick turn the TV on now”! Mr. Wick quickly turned on the cable television and a warning kept scrolling across the screen. Another man came through the door; he had a pistol at his side, a sword on his back, and was dressed in a soldier’s uniform.
“You have to get the kids out of here now”!
Before the soldier moved out of the classroom Mr. Wick grabbed his shoulder. “Where will we go”? I saw that his face worn with worry.
The soldier turned and grasped both of Mr. Wick’s shoulders, “go to the buses. We have men ready to drive and evacuate the kids to safety”. Then he vanished through the door and ran down the hallway.
“Everyone quickly to the buses” Mr. Wick yelled. Alex, Tyler, Blake, Jonathan (Alex’s brother) and I quickly ran out the door and in the direction of the buses. We heard a loud explosion from above us, and then the ceiling collapsed on top of us.
As I came too, I could see Tyler, Jonathan, and Alex still running. I managed to push the rubble off me then seen Blake unconscious and buried up to his chest. It took a few minutes but I was able to pull him out. Out of nowhere, two soldiers in blue and white uniforms came out of the classroom 15 feet in front of us. They began to get closer and closer, and one said “secure them”. I tried to quickly pick up Blake and find a way out, but a soldier pushed me to the ground. As I was pinned to the ground, I could see the other picking up Blake. “Keep your hands off of him!” I screamed. I quickly punched the guard to break free and tackled the other to the ground. He quickly picked me and pushed me against the wall. His hand quickly met his pistol that found its way to the side of my head “so we got a tough guy, huh”? A boot met his side which sent him flying and me to the ground. His partner tried to fist fight my savior but he was quickly countered and a sword met his chest.  Then he aimed his pistol towards the other downed soldier and fire a single bullet. The figure crouched next to me “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here sooner”, he said with a calming voice.
“Y-you’re the s-soldier from earlier”, I said being scared half to death from what just happened. His hand met face “It’s alright you’re safe now, what is your name?” he asked.
“My name… is Gunner” I softly responded.
“My name is Nicholas" he said, "can you carry your friend over there”? I managed to nod my head up and down, then went and picked up Blake. We made our way towards the buses, and quickly got on. I set Blake in a seat that no one was sitting up front, then Nicholas examined him. “His arm is broken” he said. I took off my uniform coat and handed it to him. Nicholas began to make a sling out of it, “Gunner” he said. “For someone your age to put a fight up like that, it took courage. Don’t ever let that courage go, understand”? I nodded and started to make my way to the back of the bus. Someone quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me into their seat. Before I could see who it was, their cheek was pressed against mine and I could hear a small sob.
“I’m scared”, her soft voice rang in my ear. I leaned back to see Charlotte’s face, she had tears rolling down her face. She pulled me closer again and cried, and nothing came to mind. I didn’t know what to feel. So much had just happened in little time. “Gunner”, her face full of worry, “please, just say something”.
“Listen, we’re going to be okay Charlotte”. I tried to sound confident for her to believe me, because before I got here, I didn’t know if I was safe at all. I put my arm around her, “If anything happens, I swear I’ll protect you”.
“Thank you”, she said as she managed a smile and leaned against me.
I woke up after the bus started to hit some bumps on the road; I checked my pocket watch to see what time it was. 12:30 pm. As I looked around the bus I noticed that it wasn’t just students on here, there were men, women, and families on this bus. This could only mean that it didn’t just happen around the school area. It had to be happening almost all over Staliongrad. From where I was sitting I could still see Blake, he was still lying in the seat I had put him in. Charlotte slept against me, she looked peaceful now. I looked outside the bus window, and saw little to nothing. We were basically in the middle of nowhere. Nicholas turned the speaker for the bus on, “listen up. We will be reaching our primary destination in about ten minutes, so be prepared to leave the bus so that they can quickly leave”. I had to find out where we were going.
I began to get up but Charlotte held onto me, “Charlotte” I whispered. “I’ll be right back alright”. I carefully to her arm off me and tiptoed my way to the front of the bus.
Nicholas already knew I was behind him, “what is it” he said.
“Well I… wanted to check on Blake”I tried to lie plus, I actually should have been checking in on him anyways.
“He’ll be fine" he answered, "but you shouldn’t use your friend as an excuse. What do you really want to know”?
I cringed a bit knowing that I had been lying, “where are we going and what is happening”? “Alright" he said, "I’ll tell you where were going but I’ll tell you what is going on when we get there, got it”? I nodded my head; at least I was getting something. He pulled out a map of areas around the country where King Stalin had rule over. “We are going over to a secret base called Base Lynch; there are many others like it”. I was a bit confused but I eventually understood. Looking forward out of the bus I could see the entrance to the base. I quickly made my way back to Charlotte, and put her on my back. She put arms around me and I held her up by her legs so she wouldn’t fall. It wasn’t the most polite thing to think about but I started to think she had to be around 110-120lbs. because it wasn’t that hard carrying her.
Everyone began to exit the bus in single files and began filling rooms in the base. I quickly grabbed one and set Charlotte down in a bed. As I left I wrote both her and my name on the door. Nicholas had owed me an explanation, but first I had to find him.
I began to search the base up and down looking for him. “Gunner”! I turned around to see Jonathan, Alex, and Tyler. “What the hell happened to you and Blake?” Alex said.
A grim look came to my face “We nearly died”.
Jonathan looked around “then where the hell is Blake”.
“Well” I said, “judging the fact he has a broken arm, they probably have him in their medical facility”. Down the hallway I spotted Nicholas and called for him.
He eventually heard me and made his way over to me, “I guess I can tell you now, the whole base will soon”. He made a long sigh, “Gunner, there is no easy way of saying this, so I’m going to tell you how it is. The day that the government of Staliongrad has dreaded, has arrived. The Equestrians have declared war”.